For my 5 year old daughter who just watched another magician perform, magic is a skill that is matched by nothing else. It is something that she continues to believe that her father can perform — and something that she is learning to perform.

For me, magic is the silliness that I willingly become part of just to watch my daughter, impressed, giggle. Magic is that feeling when I watch her jump around excitedly after I pull a coin from behind her ear or after I make things disappear and reappear out of thin air.

Magic is what happens when I spend more mindful time with my daughter and my family. When the distractions of the day to day digital life lay forgotten in some corner of the home. When my daughter lends a spontaneous burst of energy and everyone around just joins in on her imaginative games. When there is nothing playing in the background expect for the chatters and guffaws or even complete silence at times. When everyone I love is around me, with me.

That is when magic happens.